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Friday, January 17, 2014

Tinuy-an Falls: Pride of Bislig, Surigao del Sur

Our second day at Surigao del Sur was a bit jam-packed, though we had enough time to appreciate the beauty of Enchanted River of Hinatuan and see the passion for toys and food by the married couple Willimans at Ocean View Park at Bislig, we were soon at a habal-habal ride for our last stop at this province, Tinuy-an Falls. It was a bit bittersweet to have our tour of the province end soon as we were juggling with a tight schedule, but I am glad I was able to fit all the highlights of Surigao del Sur within two days.

Tinuy-an Falls, Surigao del Sur

The majestic Tinuy-an Falls of Barangay Borboanan, Bislig City is locally dubbed as the 'Niagara Falls of the Phillippines'. This three-tiered waterfall is considered the widest in the country, being 95 meters wide and towering 55 meters. It's probably one of the grandest falls in the country that's why its also considered as one of CARAGA's most popular tourist destination.

Before going to Tinuy-an, it rained quite a bit which made our stay at OVP a little longer than expected, and we didn't want to go there while its pouring hard because I don't want to take the risk of getting my gear wet and the roads going to the falls might be slippery due to the rain. We have arrived at Tinuy-an's entrance by around 3 PM and upon seeing this tiny water curtain, I was already amazed. Hearing the loud rush of flowing water gave me chills and excitement so I only took two photos of this cute cascade and made my way to the viewing area of the falls.

this petite water curtain will greet you upon your arrival

My mouth was just gapen open in awe, this time probably "fall-struck" (what I am doing to these English words). It's a good thing that it was raining a couple of days in Mindanao, well in fact there was a typhoon before and during our trip, which was a good thing since it let us see the falls in its full form. It was also deserted when we went there! So it was just me and my friends and the local staff and guides that were present! Such a delight.

I was just amazed with beauty and grandeur so I took a couple of minutes to let it sink within me. It was one of the most picturesque waterfalls I have ever seen up to this date. Its height, wide berth and raging water reminded me of a very powerful and strict father figure. I decided to take a couple of pictures when it started raining again!

rain while taking pictures :(

We didn't want to be stuck there later by nightfall with heavy rain (I was only able to take a couple of shots T_T boohoo) so we immediately went to ask around how we can reach the two upper levels of the falls. The staff said we couldn't go by ourselves since some parts of the stairs going up were ruined and some parts of the falls are slippery. I was reluctant because I didn't want to shell out money if the service wasn't great and it didn't look dangerous enough to me. For some reason, four guides joined us saying we can give them whatever amount we'd like. After the tour, we were glad they were there to show us the way. Since it was raining hard, we couldn't really see which way to go since our surroundings were very dark. Two of the guides were also there taking our pictures and one of them was very good because I use an SLR and I wasn't expecting there would be good shots, really, because I actually left my lens at manual focus! It was a fun tour because the guides even directed us to do some buwis-buhay shots, though we probably left them a big tip (there were only three of us so we had to divide the tip to 333 pesos per person), but hey, it was worth it and it was Christmas season anyway :) It's not like everyday that you could experience this in Manila!

goofing around at Tinuy-an

yumo-yoga kuno! lol

taking a shower... more fun in The Philippines!

topmost part of Tinuy-an

yup, so goofy indeed!

the view from the top of the falls, yup we were actually on the tip!

yup, us at the top of Tinuy-an!!!

Our guides showed us this bamboo raft that we can ride to experience the raging falls! Since they did not charge us anything, of course we gave them our big YES. I haven't been to any waterfalls lately so I actually forgot the feeling of the water hitting your body. It was sooo fun! Me and my friends couldn't really hear each other so we just enjoyed the "water massage" from Tinuy-an. I wanted to stay longer there if only we had more time. I wanted to take more pictures as I haven't got the image I was hoping for but the rain didn't look like it would stop anytime soon, I also thought about staying overnight, but seeing that we have an early trip to make the next day, it wasn't feasible. So after a few moments, we said our farewell to Tinuy-an Falls. I hope it won't be my last time there.

after our raft ride

mga batang maligalig! haha

Me and my companions were curious as to how Tinuy-an would measure up to Niagara before coming here, but I didn't really mind now as I though Tinuy-an Falls had this uniquely Filipino feel with all the tall plants around and friendly locals. Tinuy-an was a perfect end for our two-day trip to Surigao del Sur and I hope I could come back again soon with my family!

The Chronicles of Mariane is Mariane Ballesteros' personal blog that records all her random thoughts on traveling, fashion, food, and other (not-so) interesting adventures. She's working as a System Analyst and is trying to balance all her goals in life with her weird body clock. She loves to travel and eat, apparently! She's (trying to be) an entrepreneur, polyglot, and a travel photographer.
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There some very impressive points in your blog. I must appreciate your excellent work. I find the blog post very interesting and moreover very informative. I am thinking to write a piece on related topic. Will definitely share it and waiting to read some more interesting blogs from you.

yup, actually we also have bags with us when we went there, what we did was we entrusted our stuff to the tinuy-an tourism office, or basically this is just where they sell the entrance tickets :) they didn't charge us anything and don't worry mababait naman tao dun